Influences For Our Film

One major influence for our thriller film is ‘Se7en’ (Dir, David Fincher, 1995). Throughout the film, and one of David Fincher’s trademarks are gloomy atmospheres, usually very dark, murky and raining. Seeing these kinds of settings give the audience watching connotations of what they expect the rest of the film to look like. It is also a conventional thriller technique, making the viewer feel on edge and wonder what may be lurking in the shadows. This is exactly the kind of atmosphere we want to create in our thriller. We want to create as many enigmas as possible in the opening two minutes, and one of the major questions that we want the audience to wonder about is why the room is so dark, grubby and run-down. This setting that we have chosen will also reflect the main characters state of mind, and how he is feeling. We want to make it give the feeling that he is trapped inside his own prison.

Another influence for our thriller was the bed/cold turkey scene in ‘Trainspotting’ (Dir. Danny Boyle, 1996). Though not a thriller film, it has many influences from that genre and many harrowing scenes that are typically seen in thriller films. It also has a very grimy atmosphere, and no one ever looks clean. The particular scene that influenced us was the scene where the main character Mark Renton is trying to get off heroin and is laying in bed, having vivid hallucinations and nightmares. This was a very important scene for us, as we would like to incorporate a bed into our thriller, and have similar visions/hallucinations. The room that Mark is in also influenced us. It is very untidy, and there is barely any colour in it. This is the kind of look we want for our room in our film, making the character seem closed in and trapped, almost ready to explode with agony.

A further influence we took for our film was from the psychological thriller ‘The Machinist’ (Dir. Brad Anderson, 2004). Throughout the whole film, the main character of Trevor Reznik is in a state of mental anguish, something that we want our main character to feel. The look of Trevor was also a huge influence on us. He has insomnia, is incredibly thin, barely more than a bag of bones, and his face looks tired and beaten down. This look is exactly how we wanted our main character to look. This immediately tells the audience that this character has something wrong with him and is not in a good place in his life. This will make the viewer pay close attention to him, and will create many enigmas, as they ask why he is this way and how he can start to improve. The film itself was also an influence on us, as it is a very dark film, that doesn’t give away answers until the very end. It keeps the audience guessing, which is exactly what we want our thriller to do, right from the first shot.

For our ideas for music that could be used in our thriller, we took influences from other films such as ‘Hard Candy’ (Dir. David Slade, 2006) and ‘Cape Fear’ (Dir. Martin Scorsese, 1991). Both of these films are vastly different from each other, but both gave us great ideas for the music for our thriller. ‘Cape Fear’ has a very distinctive soundtrack that many people will be able to recognise. We loved the sound of the music used in the opening prison scene, and though it set the mood perfectly. We thought that using a similar sound in our film would make the audience wonder about the main character, and it would create enigmas as to why he should be feared or worried about.

‘Hard Candy’ has a vastly different soundtrack. Though it runs for over 100 minutes, there is only 9 minutes of non-diegetic sound throughout the whole film. This use of soundtrack in the correct places makes the audience jump, and wonder if that scene is important. But, the main use of silence is a great idea from director David Slade, as it makes the film seem much more real and keeps the audience on edge throughout. The silence creates tension, and the viewer is wondering what will break it. We thought the idea of silence, or a slight non-diegetic sound or ambient sound in the background would make our thriller feel chilling and keep the audience wondering, whilst making them fear what happens next.

The idea of another character being in a suit, and a complete contrast to the world around him came from the film ‘Man On Fire’ (Dir. Tony Scott, 2004). The particular influence came from the bomb sequence, where the main character John Creasy is torturing a man. The antagonist is in just underwear, and the setting around him is unnerving and chilling, but Creasy is in a business suit, the complete opposite of what the audience is seeing around them. This makes Creasy seem in control of the situation. This was the feeling we wanted from our character who wears a suit. He will be a complete contrast to the room around him, and the other man in the room. We wanted to use this idea because we thought it would create many enigmas, and that the man in the suit would seem very out of place, and people will want to watch on to see why he is so out of place, and why he is there.

- Taylor Gladwin